New dummy advice announced 

21 June 2007

The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) today announces its latest advice to parents with regard to dummies or soothers:

“Settling your baby to sleep with a dummy – even for naps – can reduce the risk of cot death. If breastfeeding, do not begin to give a dummy until your baby is one month old to ensure breastfeeding is well-established. Don’t worry if the dummy falls out while your baby is asleep, and don’t force your baby to take a dummy if he or she doesn’t want it. Never coat the dummy in anything sweet.”

FSID has joined forces with MAM, the UK’s soother specialists, in a two-year partnership to promote this important health message. MAM are supporting FSID’s campaign with a new leaflet that lists FSID’s guidelines regarding soothers. FSID will also receive a donation of 10p from each Mini Night Soother and Night Soother MAM sells. All MAM soother packaging has been re-designed to include the new soother guidelines and to publicise FSID’s other advice on how to reduce the risk of cot death.

Joyce Epstein, FSID’s Director, says: “FSID welcomes MAM’s help in trying to eliminate sudden infant deaths. Our partnership will help to spread key health messages about how to reduce the risk of cot death and raise much-needed funds for research to help save babies’ lives. Although much progress has been made, cot death is still the biggest killer of babies over one month old in the UK today.”

Lisa Parkhill, MAM Managing Director, says: “We are delighted to team up with this leading UK baby charity to help parents to create a safe sleeping environment for their baby. MAM has been involved with SIDS organisations throughout the world for many years, and we are delighted to continue this support in the United Kingdom.”

Media enquiries: for more information about the new dummy advice or to arrange an interview with an expert, please call Nicola Peckett in FSID’s press office on 020 7227 5212. For more information about MAM, please call Tracey Rixon at MAM (UK) on 020 8943 8880.

Notes to editors: FSID’s scientific advisor, Professor George Haycock says: “Dummy use is widespread in the UK and other developed countries and generates strong feelings both for and against, based mainly on cultural and family tradition and custom rather than on scientific evidence that it is beneficial or harmful.

"A number of epidemiological research studies have appeared in the last few years suggesting that babies who are regularly given a dummy when put down to sleep are less likely to die suddenly and unexpectedly than those who are not.

"To attempt to clarify the issue, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) set up a research group to investigate the published literature on this subject, and they performed a meta-analysis(1) of all adequately designed studies. They found that the overall risk of SIDS was halved by dummy use, and as a result of this finding the AAP now recommends that a dummy should be offered every time an infant is put down to sleep, once breast feeding has been established, which they estimated would be the case after one month of age.

"A more recent study(2) from California found an even greater protective effect of dummy use but was published too late to be included in the meta-analysis.”

For more information, parents and health visitors can call FSID’s helpline 020 7233 2090 or visit www.fsid.org.uk  The new advice on dummies is also published in the most recent ‘Reduce the Risk of Cot Death’ leaflet.

About FSID: The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths is the UK’s leading baby charity working to prevent sudden infant deaths and promote infant health. FSID funds research; supports bereaved families; promotes baby care advice; and works to improve investigations when a baby dies.

About MAM UK: MAM is one of the leading manufacturers of baby soothing and comforting products in the world. MAM (UK) Ltd., promote and support the healthy development of babies by providing a range of attractive, innovative, well researched products which are developed and manufactured to the highest quality. For more information, visit www.mamuk.com  As part of the partnership with FSID, MAM will manufacture 200,000 free sample soothers that will include an illustration of a baby sleeping with a MAM soother in its mouth. The promotional soothers will be used to create awareness of the new soother guidelines and will be sent out via magazines, healthcare professionals and retailers.


References:
(1) Hauck FR, Omojokun OO, Siadaty MS. Do pacifiers reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome? A meta-analysis. Pediatrics. 2005 Nov; 116(5):e716-23. A meta-analysis is a statistical method that allows the results of multiple studies to be combined, increasing the numbers in the analysis and thereby strengthening the confidence with which the results can be expressed.

(2) Li DK, Willinger M, Petitti DB, Odouli R, Liu L, Hoffman HJ. Use of a dummy (pacifier) during sleep and risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS): population based case-control study. BMJ. 2006 Jan 7;332(7532):18-22.

 

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